What have been your favorite communities built around an individual game? Was it an MMO, like World of Warcraft? Or a shooter, like Halo 2? Or some other genre? And what did you like about your social interactions in that game? Was it highly competitive, or especially supportive to new players? Was it fun because it was a large community, or because it enabled lots of smaller interactions and the development of friendships?

And finally, how did that social community affect the way that you played the game?

I know that this is against the established rules, but GameInformer has the best community with people that share the same interest for gaming, as far as I know at least. Other websites are often full of immature or disrespectful users. Of course, not everyone is like this, but its hard to find somebody that wants to engage in serious discussion about games.

However, if I had to pick a community, within this reader discussion's rules, it would have to be Bad Company 2. Nobody ever called me noob, and that was enough to amaze me.

The Battlefield 3 community was the best online community I've ever been a part of. The team work and squad based gameplay required to succeed forged many friendships with people from all over the world.

The game was better than everyone gave it credit for. I was able to join a clan who played clean and were a great group to just chat with. It's a shame Zipper is gone and we won't see a sequel but MAG players may have been the best group I ever played with and against. 187 Valor for the win. :)

I would have to say Splinter Cell Double Agent. Even though it was an old game a solid community was around until the release of blacklist. Just about everyone had a mic and since not a lot of people played it everyone knew each other. I would rarely stumble upon someone who team killed or didn’t work as a team. I think what made this game last was that there was no real incentive for ranking up. Everyone played to win and have fun so there was no selfishness.

I really enjoyed the Phantasy Star Online community on Gamecube.
Maybe it's because it was my first experience with online play, but everyone seemed incredibly friendly, talkative and helpful. Don't remember dealing with any dinguses.

World of Warcraft. At the beginning people were really friendly and looking to make friends, share tips, quest, trade, and just have fun together. The Barrens chat was filled with hilarious Chuck Norris jokes 24/7. If you were in trouble someone would help you, regardless of faction(unless you were in hillsbrad). Building a group meant inviting people you trusted or actually knew from your server. I had a buddy that trusted me enough to share his account info so I could move his character nearby for a later raid. Today, things are too impersonal and people just want to be a-holes and troll. The community is still hilarious but I really miss the early days of WoW.

Dark souls. An enemy invading your world but waiting until you have defeated an enemy you are fighting, and healing up is just so cool. It is a level of sportsman like cunduct that is rare in many games.

Journey isn't really all about online play, but my online interactions were the best with this game. Obviously no one makes stupid remarks because you can't talk, but every player I met was always extremely cooperative in moving forward and helping me understand what to do next. I never experienced any trolling or anything like that, and I finished the game impressed with my interactions with players I didn't verbally communicate with.

Honestly it's got to be Chivalry: Medieval Warfare for me. On top of the game being super fun, it's got simple yet effective actions like battle cries, taunts and dialogue options to have an epic all out war turn into something that could fit in in a silly comedy. Most of my friends on my (admittedly small) Steam friend list I met playing that game.

I spend the most time in two communities: Wargamming.net (World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, and World of Warships) and right here at Gameinformer. Wargamming's forums are my favorite because they were the first forums I joined and I know many of the other people there. I enjoy GI's forums because here I can talk about a wide variety of gaming topics and there are always fresh subjects to discus!

I'll probably be the only one to say this, but CoD Black Ops 2's zombies mode is where I've met a majority of my xbox live friends. People are always willing to share information and help each other out. I've never met a bad person on there. As long as you try to communicate and try to find a lobby where others are too, you are going to have a good time. The fact that it's coop and you have to communicate must drive away the trolls. I've met some very interesting and surprisingly awesome people playing that game. Who knew?